Friday, July 08, 2016

There was a time when not going to the movies meant watching on a
small TV at home; that it was boring was obvious because you never chose doing
it over going to a movie theater where a big screen and a big sound could be
found. Times have changed and the “home theater” now means more than just
having greater choices in what to watch when the TV is turned on. You can even
own movies in high resolution to watch when you want to, and take advantage of
the latest 4K technology to let your 4K
Blu-ray player stream movies or spin discs at will. But to really
enjoy watching at home means stepping back and considering just how the
experience can be enhanced. Doing so requires taking a hard look at how you
watch and how you listen and decide how they both can be improved.

There are two areas, picture and sound, to enhance and improve on
so as to make watching more enjoyable and exciting.

THE TELEVISION

In the old days you picked a TV to take home — 19” being the most
chosen — and that was it, there wasn’t anything else to choose from because the
cathode tube-based TV was a big, ugly square beast. Today’s TVs are thin and
attractive, yet filled with modern technology designed and devoted towards
making a picture that attracts and holds the attention. Today’s TVs give you 2
distinct choices to make for personalizing what you will see:

Size of TV

There are many different sizes of TVs to choose from, yet even large
TVs are no longer priced sky-high. Additionally, the size
of the TV doesn’t dictate that they must be heavy or awkward to
place in the home: most will find putting them on a cabinet an easy job, while
others will marvel at how simple it is to mount a large flat-panel
television on a wall.

Resolution of the TV

HDTV

When the television signal went digital, it was accompanied by
the appearance of the high-resolution (HD) flat
panel TV. This resolution was many times that of the
no-longer-standard “broadcast signal” and opened up detail and colors like was
never seen before. The results are that a HDTV
flat panel TV provides a detailed and attractive picture that everyone
can enjoy.

4K UHD TV

The advent of the 4K
television — having a resolution that is 4 times that of a HDTV —
opens up the display to provide a picture that is even more immersive and
inspiring than those that came before. The 4K
picture allows for a greater color palette to be seen, and for
blacks to be even more “inky.” As the latest evolution in the increase of
resolution for TVs, a 4K
TV is one way to take the “home theater” experience even farther
visually.

THE SOUND

A great picture has to be accompanied by great sound if it’s to
break through the barrier of “just watching” and turn it into “movie time.” The
TV speakers are good for listening to talk shows and casual listening, but
they’re too small physically (due to the thin chassis of today’s TVs) to really
set the sound loose. That’s why there are two choices for enhancing the overall
sound quality:

Soundbars

There are many advantages to having a soundbar
as the main audio system. Designed to be svelte and easily put in place before
the TV (or under it if wall mounted), a soundbar has all the technology needed
to drive the speakers that are also within its chassis. Besides offering
surround sound options and audio enhancement/calibration, a soundbar
can also have “smart TV” functions built in like accessing music and other
applications, playing music from a smartphone or tablet (via Bluetooth). Many soundbars
also include subwoofers for deeper bass and has them connected to the soundbar
wirelessly too.

Amplified sound

The advantages of having an AV
Receiver (a.k.a., amplifier) is that there’s a great deal of power
for precisely “driving” the speakers connected to them. These speakers can be as
simple as just the left and right for stereo, or create a 5.1 system (adding a
center channel, left and right surrounds and a subwoofer) or even higher configurations such as 7.1, 9.2,
etc. The AV
receiver doesn’t just provide power as it also has enhanced
technologies for creating a greater immersive sound experience: these include
Dolby Digital and others, including new audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos.
A wide range of enhancements to the “sound” will be possible, due to the
focused nature of the receiver
dealing exclusively with the sound (although most now feature video
transfer functions as well as “smart TV” abilities as well).

It’s not about duplicating the movie theater experience but about
creating a wholly unique “home theater” experience rivaling the best seat in
the house. And now that best seat will be in your house every time you and
yours sit down to watch.